The Supreme Court threw out a challenge to an Arizona tax-credit program that channels funds to religious schools, in a bitterly divided ruling Monday that makes it more difficult for taxpayers to protest such programs as a violation of the constitutional separation of church and state.

Since the earliest years of the Fiesta Bowl, the non-profit organization has hosted and covered nearly the entire cost of a three-day spring retreat called the Fiesta Frolic for college football coaches, athletics directors and conference commissioners at a Phoenix resort. But this year's program, slated for May 4-6 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, has been canceled as the bowl works to repair its image.

Supreme Court justices who have voted against campaign finance regulations in recent years seemed ready Monday to strike down an Arizona public-financing law that gives extra matching funds to candidates who run against well-off opponents.